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Archive for July 13th, 2012

I’ve been an industrial designer for a long time, so long in fact, that I still have Prismacolor pencils, pastels, markers and gouache (long ago dried out) that I used to execute product design sketches and renderings. I still sketch quite a bit with pencils and pens. However, there are also a lot of ID software packages out there today for different budgets and needs.

With all these ID software choices, you can narrow them down with a few basic features and capabilities that you’ll need for ID:

GUI — A good one is essential for minimizing the learning curve (which can be very steep) and fitting in with the way you work.

Sketching — For mimicking napkin drawing medium, and not with contstraints and parameters, easy and fast sketching ability is an absolute.

Rendering — Communicating a design to others inside the company or to customers outside is much more effective with high-quality renderings.

Export — ID is not a standalone endeavor and the ability to export to other CAD packages for refinement is key — in native and/or neutral file formats.

We don’t have room to detail all of the ID software possibilities, but some of the more notable packages include:
-Alias Design/Surface/Automotive
-Rhino
-SolidWorks
-3ds Max
-SketchBook
-Sketchup
-modo
-Blender
-NX
-CATIA

Any others you care to add? Let us know.

In the future, I’ll put together a matrix that lists the products above and their features for comparison purposes for aspiring and practicing industrial designers.